Reducing Asset Tracking Costs

The distinction between inventory and asset tracking is a gray area in terminology. It is best thought about in terms of the balance sheet. Assets are the capitalized items you are depreciating and inventory is, well, inventory. The data tracking process and the equipment used is typically the same.

Typical assets include servers, computers, notebooks, lab equipment, test fixtures, special equipment, etc. It also can include reusable trays, bins, kegs, totes or other types of product carriers. Often these assets contain your product and are sent out to your customers and distributors. They can be expensive to replace and can damage customer perception of your brand if not properly maintained/serviced. Tracking allows you to know where these assets were shipped to, how long they’ve been out, and when they are due for service.

Auditing (cycle counting) is significantly faster with RFID. Because no line of sight is required, simply pointing and waving a handheld RFID reader toward a storage location and holding the trigger allows for extremely rapid cycle counting of tagged items. No more army of IT guys looking for assets once a year. The cost of verifying is greatly reduced and many customers increase the frequency of asset audits.